“Fire and Ice”
Robert Frost
The Poem
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Imagery: Pictures in Your
Head
What images does the poem create in
your head?
 How do these images create meaning?
 Do you know what the poem means
based on the images of the poem?

Symbols

What is a symbol?
 A symbol is
something such as an
object, picture,
written word, sound,
or particular mark
that represents
something else by
association,
resemblance, or
convention. For
example, a red
octagon may be a
symbol for "STOP".

Read back over “Fire
and Ice” and list two
symbols that you see
in the poem in your
writer’s notebook.
Symbols: Their Meaning to
the Poem

Some say the world will
end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of
desire
I hold with those who
favor fire.
But if it had to perish
twice,
I think I know enough of
hate
To say that for
destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.




In this poem the
symbols of fire and ice
stand in for what ideas?
Fire: Passion/Love
Ice: Hatred
How do the symbols add
meaning to the poem?
Sound Device: Alliteration
and Rhyme

Some say the world will
end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of
desire
I hold with those who
favor fire.
But if it had to perish
twice,
I think I know enough of
hate
To say that for
destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.



The repetition of sounds
is important to the
meaning of the poem.
Any guesses why?
Look at the sounds that
are repeated-how do
they correspond to the
important ideas that the
poem discusses?
Speaker: The Man/Woman
Behind the Words

Some say the world will
end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of
desire
I hold with those who
favor fire.
But if it had to perish
twice,
I think I know enough of
hate
To say that for
destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
How would you classify
the speaker of the
poem?
 What do you know
about him/her based on
the poem?
 What is the speaker’s
purpose?
 What questions does
the speaker want us to
ponder?

The Poem
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Line by Line Analysis: What
is it really saying?

Lines 1-2

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.

In a poem this short, you have to
question absolutely everything.
Take nothing for granted.

For example, what does "the world
will end" mean? Is the speaker
talking in Biblical terms about the
Apocalypse? Or is he imagining
natural or man-made disasters,
like whether we'll blow ourselves
up or die out in another ice age?
Or does he mean "world will end"
in a more personal sense, like the
way his world will end, or your
world?
At a literal level, fire and ice are
both ways that the human
species could be extinguished.
There are almost infinite
possibilities for either one to
happen. For example, a giant
comet hitting the earth and
making it explode: fire. A slightly
less giant comet hitting the earth
and creating a huge cloud of ash
that blocks the sun: ice.
 Thinking outside of the "natural
catastrophe" box, "fire" and "ice"
could also represent different
kinds of human emotions. Some
philosophers, for example, have
divided the human soul into
"rational" and "animal"
components, where the
"rational" is cool and deliberate,
while the "animal" is hot and
hasty.

Line by Line Analysis

Lines 3-4

From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.

The word "tasted" implies that he
hasn't felt the full brunt of fire's energy
– he has only gotten a small sample,
like those little bite-sized portions of
food that they hand out at grocery
stores.

To put it another way, think of the
character Cyclops from X-Men. Cyclops
wears those sunglasses all the time
because they control the energy that
shoots out of his eyes. If he were to
take them off permanently, they would
burn up everything around him. He
prevents this mass destruction by
focusing the energy. The speaker
suggests that we do the same thing
with emotions like "desire." We keep
them on a leash so we don't lose
control. If conditions arose that caused
us to lose control…watch out.


"Desire" is considered "hot"
because it always relates to
the body in some way. The
most obvious example is
romantic or sexual desire.
Sure, love is warm and fuzzy,
but sex, jealousy, and desire
can run out of control.
The speaker knows about
this unstable side of our
"hot" emotions. He has been
around the bend and
acquired worldly wisdom
along the way. He's a voice of
experience and not just some
naïve kid who has only felt
puppy love.
Line by Line Analysis




Line 5
But if it had to perish twice,
This idea of the world ending
("perish[ing]") twice is
complicated. If we don't even
know if the world will end
once, why worry about the
second time? Would anyone
even be around to see to
second ending? If fire is more
powerful, why wouldn't the
world just end in fire twice?
OK, take off your Skepticism
Hat and put on your
Imagination Hat.



The idea seems to be that
"fire" beats "ice" to the punch
in the first round of the
battle.
Remember that those "hot"
emotions are the impulsive
ones. If "fire" refers to the
animal side of our nature,
then the actions associated
with it are instinctual – we
don't think, we just do.
Icy actions require thinking
and deliberation. So, we'll see
what happens in Round 2.
Line by Line Analysis

Lines 6-8

I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
The speaker has also experienced hate,
a cold emotion, and he knows it can
destroy things – namely, the world.


At this point, it becomes even clearer
that "desire" is associated with "love,"
because its opposite is "hate."The
speaker seems a lot more tentative
about his relationship with hate. He
was absolutely certain that he has
tasted desire, but he only "thinks" he
knows "enough" about hate. We're in
murkier territory with this emotion.
For example, we don't know in what
sense he knows hate. Has he only
witnessed hate at a distance, or has he
been the victim of hate, or has he been
a hater himself?

His very hesitancy with the topic
(what's he trying to hide?) should set
off alarm bells of reader suspicion. Like
most people, he has probably
experienced several varieties of hate.

Why is hate an "icy" emotion?

You might think that hate should be
red-hot because it is so closely related
to blind anger. But we think he isn't
talking about the kind of anger that
comes on you in a fit of rage. We think
he's talking about the anger that
lingers beneath the surface, that you
turn over and over in your mind.

The phrase "also great" doesn't tell us
anything about the status of ice
compared to fire. So be careful about
saying that ice is just as powerful as
fire. He doesn't tell us that. When it
comes to destruction, ice is in the same
league as fire, but we don't know who
would win a one-on-one cage match.
Line by Line Analysis




Line 9
And would suffice.
The last line picks up on the
idea that we don't know
whether fire or ice is
stronger.
The end of the poem suggests
that it doesn't matter which
is stronger: both will do the
trick. "Suffice" means to be
enough to bring about some
effect.

Once you destroy something, it's
gone. If you wanted to destroy
some document, setting it on fire
would do the job. So would tearing
it up into a million little pieces.
But if you set the document on fire
and then wanted to scatter the
ashes to the corners of the earth
just to be sure, someone would be
justified in saying, "Hey, what are
you doing? It's over."

Interestingly, the word "suffice" is
a very rational and even lawyer-ly
word. The speaker seems to be
demonstrating "icy" thinking here.
If you got a little chill up your
spine at the end of the poem, that
might be why.